part 1: overview of cogeneration and its status in asia - Fire

Summary of country study – Viet Nam
CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY OF COUNTRY STUDY – VIET NAM
4.1 Overview of Energy Situations, Policies & Strategies
4.1.1 Overview of energy situation in Viet Nam
Viet Nam is endowed with considerable primary energy resources. However, the government
now faces with the severe problem of the lack of investment capital for exploitation and
production of energy from the available resources.
Energy is an infrastructure sector that requires certain priority for investment. Presently, this
sector is mostly under the management of the government.
Oil and gas sector
Since there is no refining facility in the country, all the crude oil is now exported and the
domestic demand for oil products is satisfied by import.
Natural gas is considered the strategic fuel for power generation in the future. Most of
exploited natural gas is now used for power generation. It is planned to develop the LPG and
petrochemical industry with gas as input fuel.
Coal
Only in recent years, the output of coal has been increased to reach the designed capacity of
10 million tons per annum. The main consumers of coal are the process industries, followed
by the power sector. The future development of the sector will depend heavily on alternative
sources of energy (notably, natural gas) for power generation, as well as on Viet Nam’s ability
to obtain a greater share in world market through a cost reduction in coal transportation.
Power sector
The current situation of the power sector in Viet Nam can be summarized as follows:
• The actual demand for electricity has been growing at a much more rapid rate than that
forecasted;
• The unbalance between power sources development and power network development
contributes partially to the low power supply reliability;
• The big share of hydroelectricity in total electricity generation leads to poor power supply
security in the dry season;
• The thermal power plants have low efficiencies, of the order of 25-26 per cent;
• Transmission and distribution losses are high, representing approximately 20 per cent of
the total power output.
Because of power shortage in dry season, gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power plants
were urgently introduced in 1992 and in early 1994. Power generation in period 1991-1997
experienced high growth rate of 13 per cent per annum on an average. The generation from
gas turbine (GT) grew fastest due to the policy to reduce the share of hydropower.
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